LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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GRAND LINCOLN AND JOHNSON 




BBTIMG, 



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WASHINGTON CITY, D. C, JUNE 15, 1864. 



THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE 



SPEECHES OF HON. J. M. EDMUNDS, HON. WM. D. KELLEY 

HON. HENRY S. LANE, HON. J. \V. PATTERSON, HON. 

JACOB M. HOWARD, HOJN. C. B. DENIO, HON. A 

W. RANDALL, and HON. G. ADAMS. 






GRAND LINCOLN & JOHNSON 




AT 



WASHINGTON CITY, D. C, JUNE 15, 1864. 



THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE 

or -a.Ivi:ei^ic.a., iit the fieijIdi 



SPEECHES OF HON. J. M. EDMUNDS, HON. WM. D. KELLE¥, 

HON. HENRY S. LANE, HON. J. W. PATTERSON, HON. 

JACOB M. HOWARD, HON. C. B. DENIO, HON. A. 

W. RANDALL and HON. G. ADAiMS. 



PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 

The action of the Baltimore Union Convention by which Abraham Lincoln 
was placed in nomination for President, and Andrew Johnson for Vice Pres- 
ident, received the earnest endorsement of the Union League, assembled at 
Baltimore on the 8th of June last. 

. The National Executive Committee of the League, resident in Washington, 
City, D. C, assembled on the 10th of June, and after full consideration, 
deemed it expedient that a ratification meeting should be held without delay 
in the Capitol of the Nation. 

The following call immediately appeared in the daily papers of the city : 

Ratification Mertinq. — A mass meeting to ratify the nomiaations of Abraham Lin- 
coln for President, and Andrew Johnson for Vice President of the United States, will 
be held on the south side of the Patent Office on Wednesday evening, June 15, 1864, 
under the auspices of the Union League of America. 

Able speakers will address the meeting, and appropriate proceedings be had. All ar« 
invited to attend. 



Hon. J. M.EDMUNDS, 
Hon. GREEN ADAMS, 

W. 0. STODDARD, 
Rev. BYRON SUNDERLAND, 

J. S. BROWN, 
Hon. JOSEPH H. BARRETT, 
Hon. A. W. RANDALL, 
Hon. WM. A. COOK, 

Hon. A 



national exkcdtive committee. 

Hon. J. W. FORNEY, 
W. R. IRWIN, 
LEWIS CLEPHANE, 
Hon. D. P. HOLLOWAY, 

GEORGE W. KELLOGG, 
Hon. GEORGE W. McLELLAN, 
Hon. WM. P. DOLE, 
Hon. EDW. A. ROLLINS, 
C. RICHARDS. 



Appropriate committees were appointed, and every effort put forth to ren- 
der the meeting one of more than common interest and influence. 

The open space on the south front of the Patent Office was selected as the 
place for holding it. 

THE MEETING. 

DESCRIPTION AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

The evening of the meeting was fair and beautiful — an immense crowd as- 
sembled — the proceedings were in the highest degree entertaining — all were 
delighted. 

The daily Chronicle thus described the locality and assemblage : 

The soutbern front of the Patent OflBce was resplendent with illuminated windows, 
with transparencies exhibiting mottoes, and with the drapery of flags. The front of the 
Post Office Building, opposite, was also brilliantly illuminated, and the broad interven- 
ing space was fi ^ed with a vast multitude of people from an early hour of the evening, 
where the flight of skyrockets and the superb music of the band notified the people to 
assemble, until half past eleven o'clock. 

The centre transparency, festooned with evergreens, bore the names of "Lincoln and 
Johnson." Other transparencies bore these mottoes : 

"Emancipation Proclamation — For this act I invoke the considerate judgment of 
mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 

" America wants no friend who, in war, condemns the justice of her cause ; all such 
are traitors." — Douglas. 

"I propose to move immediately on your works." — Grant. 

" If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." — Lincoln. 

" You should be treated as traitors, tried as traitors, and hung as traitors." — 
Johnson. 

The right hand side of the steps was reserved for the speaker's pla'form, above which 
sprung an arch made of gas jets, while beneath it, in illuminated jets shone the word 
" Union." The band occupied the other side of the portico, and around each position 
were draped national flags and blazed smaller transparencies, with such mottoes as : 
" Union and Victory ;" " One Nation, one Destiny; "Honor the Dead;" "The Union 
Forever :" " Sherman and Thomas ;" " Remember the Fallen ;" " Spades to the Rear ;" 
"Grant;" Meade;" "Farragut;" " Dahlgren." 

The Evening Star, after giving a glowing description of the arrangements 
and exercises, says : 

There was a lajrge police force in attendance, but so well-behaved was the large crowd 
that the police did not have much work to do, except to open passages when ladies were 
passing to and fro. 

The demonstration was undoubtedly the largest and most imposing of the kind ever 
known in Washington. 

The account of the National Intelligencer is highly eulogistic. It is as 
follows, viz : 

Ratification Meeting. — A very large — we might say an immense — and animated 
meeting of citizens and strangers, with a large complement of ladies, took place last 
night in front of the Patent OfiBce, in pursuance of an invitation of the Union League 



8 

Association, to express their approval of the nominations made at the late Baltimore 
Convention for President and Vice President of the United States. 

Salvos of artillery, the enlivening strains of martial music, and a profuse display o^ 
rockets announced the time for convening the meeting, which was organized at early 
candlelight and continued until eleven o'clock. During that time the assemblage was 
entertained and edified by a number of speeches, which were well received and elicited 
frequent outbursts of applause. 

An unusual and very striking feature distinguished this occasion in the illumination 
of the great building before which the meeting took place— the windows of the vast 
front of the splendid edifice in all three stories being in a blaze of light, which almost 
paled the brightness of the full moon. It was indeed the most perfect and Btriking 
illumination we have ever seen. 

The description of the National Republican was in terms no less eulogistic. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The meeting was called to order by Hon. D. P. Holloway, who, in behalf 
of the Executive Committee, proposed the following officers : 

President — Hon. J. M. Edmunds. 

Vice Presidents — Hon. J. R. Elvans, Hon. A. C. Richards, J. S. Brown, 
Esq., Hon. D. P. Holloway, Hon. J. H. Barrett, J. F. Sharretts, Esq., Dan- 
iel Kalbfus, Esq., James A. Magruder, Esq., A. M. Swan, Esq., Hon. Lewis 
Clephane, Major David Taylor. 

Secretaries — W. R. Irwin, Esq., W. 0. Stoddard, Esq., M. E. N. Howell, 
Esq. 

They were unanimously elected. 

SPEECH OF HON. J. M. EDMUNDS. 

The President then stepped forward and spoke as follows : 

Ladiks and Gentlemen, and Fellow-Citizens: Under ordinary circumstances I 
would deem it a higlt honor to be designated as the presiding officer of this vast and 
intelligent assembly of the loyal people of the United States. That honor is rendered 
doubly dear to me by the importance of the occasion which has called you together — 
an occasion which has no precedent in the past, and which, in all its surroundings 
and issues, cannot be repeatpd in the future. 

Here, in the midst of events which are without parallel in history, in the very vortex 
of domestic strife, before which all the other contests of modern times shrink into insig- 
nificance, we have assembled to take part in a movement which, in its results, is to de- 
termine, once and for all, the strength and flexibility of American institutions, the power 
and adaptability of our representative system, and the real capacity of man for self-gOT- 
ernment, and, as a consequence of these, the preservation of true liberty of speech, of 
the press, and of man. 

What other nation on the globe could, in the midst of a conflict in which a million of 
men, its own people, are engaged, wisely and peaceably renew or change its civil ad- 
ministration ? What other nation would attempt it? Yet this is the work upon which 
we are about to enter. The first step has already been taken, and you are here to-night 
to say whether, thus far, it meets your approval. 

The representatives of the loyal sentiment of the nation have wisely, as we think, d«- 



tertnined to adhere to the great man and statesman who, for three years, has so noMy 
and ably breasted the storm of rebellion, and lound means, in the thickest of the con- 
flict, to enlarge rather than diminish the basis and the guaranties of human freedom. 

And with him, on the same platform of principles, they have placed a man of kindred 
emotions, whose devotion to the Union has never been doubted or surpassed, and whO' 
boldly asks the sons and daughters of his own, a slave State, "What right have you, 
what right have I, to hold a fellow-man in bondage, except for crime?" 

But of these representative men and their principles, and the importance of their elec- 
tion to the position for which they have been nominated, you will hear more fully from 
the distinguished gentlemen who are to address you. 

Thanking you for your presence and for the honor conferred upon me, the meeting is 
now prepared to proceed with its proper business. 

Upon the conclusion of this introductory speech, which was listened to 
with marked attention, and well received, the Hon. J. H. Barrett, on behalf of 
the Committee on Resolutions, offered the foUowiug, which were received 
with enthusiatic cheering, and unanimously adopted : 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Resolved, That we heartily approve and will earnestly sustain, by every honGrabl& 
effort, the nominations made by the Union National Convention, which assembled at Bal- 
timore on the 7th instant. 

Resolved, That in the renomination of Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, in accord- 
ance with the clearly manifested will of the loyal people of the nation, an assurance has 
been given to the world that the destructive civil war, begun by ambitious traitors, shall 
not end until the rebellion and its cause are utterly and finally overthrown. 

Resolved, That in the nomination of Andrew Johnson for the Vice Presidency, we see 
not only a just recognition of unshaken fidelity to the Union, but also, as in the presi- 
dential nomination, a determination that true and reliable Union men, and none others, 
shall hereafter occupy the high places of the nation. 

Resolved, That we cordially endorse the platform of princples set forth by the Union 
National Convention, and that on this basis of policy under the banner of Lincoln and 
Johnson we confidently look for such a popular triumph in November next as will insure 
the just and legitimate results of decisive victory in the field over armed rebellion. 



SPEECH OF HON. WM. D. KELLEY. 

x^fter the adoption of the Resolutions, Judge Edmunds introduced to the 
audience Hon. Wm. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, whose appearance on the 
platform was greeted with great cheering. 

He addressed the audience as follows : 



My first duty, ladies and fellow-citizens, 
it seems to me, is to thank the committee 
of arrangements for having given Pennsyl- 
vania the foremost position in the duties 
of to-night. However feeble the represen- 
tative of that State may be, they have done 
well in giving her the foremost place, for 
as she goes, so goes the Union. [Ap- 
plause.] And on the night of the first 
Tuesday in November next, the banner of 
Lincoln and Johnson will float over her 



victorious legions. [Great cheering.] 
Lincoln and Johnson are names that are 
dear to the people of that Slate. They 
are well known and highly honored there, 
and the cause they represent is that lying 
nearest to the henrt of her people and of 
the people of the Union — [applause] — uni- 
versal liberty and union, now and forever, 
one and inseparable. [Great cheering.] 
The Baltimore Convention have nominated 
these gentlemen for the Presidency 



*tid Vice-Presidency; did they do right? 
2[They did — they did.] Ay, they did. 
Let us ratify it, and pledge ourselves to- 
tiight that our labors shall be ceaseless 
until the people of the country, by their 
sufiFrages, shall ratify and confirm our ac- 
tion. [Cries of" we will.^' and ap;jlanse.] 

Why should we not do it? We elected 
Abraham Lincoln President of the United 
States, and want to know how he will be- 
have himself when the courts are open in 
every district of this broad land; we want 
to know whether he will execute the laws 
in mercy, but in firmness, upon the con- 
spirators who have led half a million of 
our fellow-countrymen to bloody graves in 
Southern fields. [That's the question.] 
It is due to h'm that he should administer 
bis office in peace over the whole country. 
It is due to the dignity of our nation that 
he whose election was made the pretext 
for rebellion should carry on the war until 
the rebellion is closed [bravo] and its 
leaders sleep the quiet sleep of death ia 
felons' graves. [Ap[)laus('.] To have 
chosen any other man to bear our stand- 
ard would have exhibited a measure of 
fickleness disreputable to the intelligence 
and firmness of a republicaa people. 
[Right.] 

When or where, my fellow-countrymen, 
has mortal man been called to bear such 
responsibilities, to weigh, measure, and 
decide upon such far-reaching propositions 
as he has ? What was the condition of 
our country when we made him its Presi- 
dent? Go" back to the 4th of March, 1861, 
and tell me where was your army? Under 
Twiggs in Texas. Under Canby in New 
Mexico. Where were your arms ? Gorg- 
ing Southern arsenals. Where was your 
navy? Why, of sixty-nine vessels, forty- 
two were laid up in ordinary or disman- 
tled in Southern yards, and of the remain- 
ing twenty-seven all save four, the smillest 
and lightest, were upon the most distant 
stations to which our national vessels bear 
our national flag. 

What were the available resources of 
your country, and what the condition of 
its Treasury ? It was bankrupt. Ay, not 
only was it destitute of coin, but the con- 
spirators who controlled what is known as 
Buchanan's Administration, had extin- 
guished your national credit. So that to 
pay their last quarters' salaries they pro- 
posed to borrow $5,000,000 at one per 
cent, a month, and not all America and 
Europe combined were willing to lend to 
this nation whose domain is a continent 
and whose thirty-odd millions of people 
are so active, so energetic, so intelligent, 
so enterprising, the paltry sum of^ 
$5,000,000 at one per cent, a month. 



Your Senate was depleted of those who 
had been its leading members, and the 
chairs were vacant on the floor of half the 
lower house of Congress. The world 
looked upon our country as dismembered. 
Despots shouted at the failure of freedom, 
and monarchists proclaimed the failure of 
the last great Republic. There was joy 
wherever despotism or aristocracy pre- 
vailed, and there was sorrow among the 
oppressed millions who had beheld in the 
effulgent flag of our country the harbinger 
of hope to themselves and their posterity. 
In the midst of this anarchy, gloom, and 
despondency a quiet, unpretending, honest 
man from Illinois, as President elect, took 
the inaugural oath of office, and entered 
upon the government of the country. The 
terms of that oath bound him to attempt 
the conquest of 900,000 square miles of 
territory over which an usurping govern- 
ment had been established, and the reduc- 
tion of the people thereof to obedience to 
the law. 

When, as I have asked, did a man as- 
sume such duties, involving such responsi- 
silities, and how has he performed them ? 
Do you remember how all the avenues, save 
one, to yonder Capitol were bairicaded? 
Do you remember how ovens were built in 
its lower stories, and wells dug beneath its 
dome? Do you remember how the inva- 
ders first came to the banks of yonder riv- 
er, and how the allies and co-conspirators 
in the city threatened to capture it? Do 
you remember how bridges were burnt, and 
the great lines of travel through which the 
Capitol of the Government had access to 
the loyal regions of the North were severed? 
If you remember these things, come with 
me to the present, and see how wise and 
efficient a President Abraham Lincoln has 
been. Who in Maryland will now burn a 
bridge, or make war on the Union to save" 
the accursed institution of slavery? Why, 
a convention to revise the Constitution of 
that State is now sitting, aud has deter- 
mined to abolish slavery, and to root out 
the cause, rebellion. [Applause.] And the 
people of Baltimore are to night, more rad- 
ical on the question of human freedom than 
many of the men of more northern cities.. 
[Renewed applause.] 

Where now is Missouri, which (Jlaib., 
Jackson and his les^islature undertook to, 
carry over to rebellion — the bastard confed- 
eracy, the offspring of fraud and force ? 
Whyi it washer radical delegation that .sat 
in the Baltimore couvention. They advo- 
cate the immediate abolition of slavery, and 
the amendment of the Constitution of the 
United States was to prohibit it forever. 
[Applause.] The conservatives of their 
State have passed an ordinance fixing a 



6 



day when slavery must die ; but it is too 
remote to satisfy tiie humane and patriotic 
Impatience of the masses of her people. It 
is not our capitol that is invaded to-night. 
[Great cheering]. 

Grant's forces west calmly on the other 
bank of the James, and Hunter victoriously 
thunders to the rest of Richmond. 

Shall we talk of Tennessee where Andrew 
Johnson rules, and rules in the interest of 
the Union and universal liberty to man. 
[Applause.] 

Of the free State of West Virginia, whose 
star shot through the gloom and darkness 
of political chaos to dwell forever in the 
constellation that illumines our flag. [Ap- 
plause.] Or of Arkansas, whose sovereign 
convention has revised her constitution, 
and forever excluded slavery. Or Louisi- 
ana, who set Arkansas the example she so 
swiftly followed. Or shall we follow Sher- 
man and his brave legions in their victo- 
rious march through Georgia. [Applause.] 
Or will the booming of the Swamp Angel 
visit the schools for colored children at 
Hilton Head and Beaufort ? No, time will 
not permit us to indulge in the contempla- 
tion of these evidences of the rapidity with 
which northern ideas and bayonets have 
made double conquest of the rebels and 
their country. 

But all this we have done under the ad- 
ministration of President Lincoln, and we 
will go to complete conquest for we have 
a navy ; we have an army ; we have a trea- 



sury ; and the people cheerfully take all the 
greenbacks that the printers can make. 
[Laughter and cheers.] They believe that 
the world offers no better security than the 
bonds of the United States. And what is 
more, we have grown during this vast civil 
war as no people ever grew. Europe, whose 
journals teem with expressions of wo nder 
at the magnitude and fierceness of our al- 
lies, pours in upon us this year nearly half 
a million of emigrants. And by the talis- 
manic power of Abraham Lincoln, exercis- 
ing the war powers of the President, three 
million chattels were converted into men 
and citizens by the stroke of a pen. [Great 
cheering.] No longer stock, indentured 
with horses, cows, and other cattle, these 
poor creatures are looked upon by us, by 
foreign nations, and by the law, as they are 
looked upon by the God of Heaven, as men 
and women, with all the hopes, doubts, 
and fears, with all the immortal aspirations 
and longings of humanity. [Applause.] 

And this has all been done in less than 
three years, under the wise, prudent, and 
courageous guidance of Abraham Lincoln. 

Let us show that republics are not fickle 
or ungrateful. Let us re-elect him trium- 
phantly ; and let it be the pride of our pos- 
terity, that while he saved our country we 
intertwined the name of Abraham Lincoln 
with that of George Washington on the 
immortal scrolls of fame. [Enthusiastic 
cheering.] 



SPEECH OE HON. H. S. LANE. 

Hon. H. S. Lane, U. S. Senator from Indiana, was next introduced by the 
President to the meeting, with the remark that he was a Lane that had no 
turnings. The Senator was received with cheers and laughter at this an- 
nouncement. He said : 



Feiends and Freemen 

OF THE City of Washington : 

I am here to mingle my congratulations 
with yours upon the auspicious action of 
the Baltimore Convention. Upon the action 
of that convention we may, I trust without 
impiety, invoke the blessing of Almighty 
God. We live in a day when piety and 
politics are inseparably united. Patriotism 
has become religion ; and I desire not the 
prayers of the Christian minister who does 
not love his country — sinner as I may be. 
(Applause.) 

It is but right that I should respond in 



behalf of the noble young State of Indiana, 
whose brow has been wreathed with the 
chaplets of victory upon a hundred battle- 
fields. The neighbor of Illinois, long since 
our people learned to know, respect and love 
the honest integrity of character and purity 
of life of Abraham Line oln. My own State 
has stood side by side with Illinois in all 
her industrial pnrsuitsand commercial in- 
terests. The same free breezes sweep the 
wide prairies which border both States. 
Our old pi'imeval forests intertwine their 
arms over the border that divides us. 

I am proud, then, to-dight in being per- 
mitted to say one word to response to thp 



Baltimore nominations. Your action to- 
night has a two-fold relation to the action 
of the Baltimore Convention. It was a 
noble convention having a grand work to 
perform, and right nobly, faithfully, and 
patriotically did they perform that work — 
they but endorsed what the people had long 
siace determined upon. 

We have first to endorse the principles 
enunciated by the Baltimore Convention : for 
truth is older and mightier than man. We 
are to endorse these principles enunciated 
in that convention, for they are truer than 
truth, and stronger than strength. The 
eternity of God's truth rests upon the prin- 
ciples proclaimed in the Baltimore Conven- 
tion. They are full of the grand utierances 
of the Sermon on the Mount; full of the 
grand utterances of the declaration of Amer- 
ican Independence, and they shall stand 
long after the hissing cavilings of our op- 
ponents shall cease to be heard on earth, 
for " truth is mighty and public justice cer- 
tain." 

Would that 1 could give to-night my 
feeble voice that volume that would enable 
all this vast assembly to hear me ; for I de- 
sire to be heard not in ray own behalf, but 
in behalf of the grand principles for the ad- 
vocacy of which we have this night assem- 
bled. And what, my fellow citizens, are the 
principles we have met to-night to endorse ? 
I am proud that we can here to-night preach 
righteousness to all nations, and universal 
emancipation to all the people, beginning at 
Jerusalem. (Laughter and cheers.) I lay 
my finger to-night upon the pulse of the 
nation, as it beats in the great metropolk 
of the Republic, and I feel that every puli- 
ation, that every heart-beat, is in favor of 
Union and universal emancipation. (Pro- 
longed applause.) 

The principles to which I shall first 
briefly direct your attention as enunciated 
by the Baltimore Convention, are that they 
pledge themselves to the country to main- 
tain the Union against all enemies, and to 
do this as patriots and not as partizans. Is 
there a loyal heart that does not respond 
to that? Is there a loyal man who would 
not preserve the Union by the application 
of force until the rebellion shall be sup- 
pressed, and suppressed forever ? 

True there are false prophets arising now 
in the country who cry peace! peace! when 
there is no peace, and can be no peace ex- 
cept at the end of a successful war, and the 
entire subjugation of the rebels in arms. 
(Applause.) I am not afraid of the word 
subjugation. It is my duty ms a patriot, it 
js my duty as a lover of my country to in- 
sist upon the entire subjugation of every 
g'ngle rebel in arms. I want no peace short 



of that. This would be my utterance'if it 
were to be my last. If thunderbolts were 
ready to burst on my head and crush me, 
I would still say, there can be no peace with 
rebels, while with their red right hand they 
clutch at the throat of the nation. 

My fellow citizens, you can have no peace 
unless you subdue the rebels. Unless you 
subdue the rebels they will subdue you ; 
and if they succeed in the dismemberment 
permanently of this Republic, the last hope 
of free government on earth will expire. 
The last votary of freedom will die in blood 
at her altar ; for the last hope of freedom is 
inseparably connected with the Stars and 
Stripes — with that flag under whose glori- 
ous folds protection is given to every cit- 
izen, wherever he may be, in whatever part 
of the earth. (Applause.) The sentiment 
then of that first resolution, I take it, you 
endorse, and from your enthusiasm I catch 
the inspiration of prophecy, and feel that a 
greater triumph and a louder shout awaits 
us in the November election. 

The next resolution proclaims no com- 
promise with traitors in arms. Nothing 
short of the unconditional surrender of 
rebels. Can we accept anything short of 
that? (Cries of " no ! no !") If you were 
inclined to-night to be recreant to your 
trust and the important duties devolved 
upon you, I should need only to appeal to 
the memories of the past to re-invigorate 
your waning patriotism. 

Look at the history of the last three 
years. Visit the graves of the hundred 
thousand martyred heroes, who have died 
that this Republic might live. Shall they 
have died in vain, or will you carry on the 
war to the bloody, bitter end, to the entire 
supremacy of the laws and vindication 
of the Constitution ? I know not how it 
may be with you, but for myself 1 do not 
desire to outlive the life of the Union. I do 
not desire to survive the Union of the States, 
or the liberties of the people. I prefer a 
o-rave in the land of freemen to life in the 
midst of slaves. '^Applause.) 

The third resolution calls for the total 
extirpation of slavery and the support of 
the President's proclamation. At the be- 
ginning of the rebellion no one perhaps 
contemplated so speedy an end to slav- 
ery. The suppression of the rebellion 
was the end. The calls for troops, the 
President's proclamation, the confiscation 
act, and all these acts of legislation 
were merely incidental to the great object 
sought to be accomplished. But when 
slavery sought to overthrow the institution^ 
of the country, it wrote its own doom ; and 
let no one expect me to be a mourner at 
that funeral. (Cheers and laughter.) The 



rebellion was inaugurated in the interests 
of slavery. Slavery was to be the great 
corner stone of the Confederacy. They 
risked all upon the rebellion, in the hope 
of perpetuating this God-accursed, unholy 
institution. They in their madness threw 
off ihe only power which ever could protect 
slavery — the Government of the United 
States — and slavery and the slave power, 
like Acteon of old, have been torn in pieces 
by their own dogs. (Laughter and cries of 
" served him right.") 

Then let slavery be extirpated. Let a 
new era dawn upon the world — upon this 
great nation. Let the principles of the 
Declaration of Independence and of Christ's 
Sermon on the Mount, begin now to have 
their first realization upon earth. I am for 
the extinction of slavery now, as a means 
to an end. It was not primarily the object ; 
but as it is necessary that slavery should 
triumph and the Union go down, or the 
Union remain forever and slavery die I am 
for the total extinction of slavery. And so 
are you, so are the people, so God wills. 

We are beginning now and here to in- 
augurate a new epoch in the world's history, 
when we declare that man shall assume his 
proper position in the economy of God, re- 
gardless of all conventional laws, prejudi- 
ces, or usages, and in the true spirit of the 
Constitution. The loyal people of the 
country will endorse that sentiment every- 
where. You have heard already of the 
progress made in Maryland, Missouri, Ten- 
nessee. Everywhere, where the blighting 
effects of this institution have been felt, the 
loyal people desire its extinction. One 
grand mission of the Union party is, to ed- 
ucate the conservatives to a proper point. 
(Cheers.) We have been educating them 
for the last few years, until now the con- 
servatives of the Border States, noblemen 
and patriots as they are, are to-night biv- 
ouacing under the midnight sky, beside the 
Northern soldier, and both have sworn an 
oath, recorded above, that slavery shall 
perish and the Union survive. (Great ap- 
plause.) 

The fourth resolution of th*^ Baltimore 
Convention is one of thanks to your noble 
soldiers who have gone to the battle-field 
in behalf of our free institutions. I have 
had occasion all my life to admire the 
Government and people of the United 
States. Imperial Rome in her palmiest 
days never exercised such a power, never 
wielded such institutions for the benefit 
of mankind. But to-night I am prouder 
of my people, I am more grateful for what 
I have seen than I have ever been before. 
The brave soldier and true citizen have 
illustrated the fervor of their patriotism 



upon an hundred battle-fields. Wherever 
they have been called into service they 
have distinguished themselves, and the 
victorious hosts of Lieutenant General 
Grant to-night shake the traitorous old 
commonwealth of Virginia to its founda- 
tions. [Great cheering.] And soon, I 
hope, as an act of God's retribotive justice, 
salt may be sprinkled over the a^hes of 
her iniquitous capital — a city to-night 
readier for destruction than were Sodom 
and Gomorrah when the Lord rained fite 
and brimstone upon them. [Enthusiastic 
cheers.] 

The Baltimore Convention voted to 
thank our noble sailors who have done so 
much to burnish the honor of the American 
navy — that honor so richly and so bravely 
won in the war of 18 1 2, when the gallant 
Lawrence and Perry, with all their com- 
peers, saved the threatened honor of the 
nation from reproach. Those sailor boys 
of ours, 

"TVhose march is on the mouutain ware, 
Whose home is on the deep," 

deserve to be remembered by the people. 
They have secured for themselves the im- 
mortality of history. 

The fifth resolution endorses the Presi- 
dent of the United States. You have 
heard, too often to make it necessary that 
I should repeat it, of the distinguished ser- 
vices and the signal triumphs of that 
pure, honest, patriotic man, Abraham Lin- 
coln, President of the United States. The 
nomination was a compliment to him well 
deserved ; but that nomination has a 
higher and deeper significance. We en- 
dorse him not simply as a pure patriot, as 
a distinguished statesman, as a tar-seeing 
politician alone, but we endorse the grand 
principles for the support of which he is 
irrevocably pledged. [Cheers.] I endorse 
his administration, I endorse his acts. I 
have voted to arm, equip, and call into the 
field every single soldier be has demanded. 
I have voted for every measure of revenue 
thought necessary to support the Govern- 
ment, and I shall still vote every dollar 
necessiiry to that purpose, even though it 
bankrupt every individual and every cor- 
poration in the land. Ob, you should 
never forget that this war debt is the price 
yon pay for the union of the States, the 
liberty of the people, and the hopes of 
mankind. [Applause.] 

The sixth resolution is in reference to 
the unity of the Cabinet. The Cabinet 
should be a nnit. I do not say the Cabi- 
net is not a unit, but if any member of it 
now, or at any time, stands between the 



President and the people and their high 
purposes to redeem the nation, they should 
be swept away as dust in the balance, and 
let all the people say amen. (Prolonged 
cheers.) 

The next resolution is in favor of the 
Pacific railroad, that grand scheme already 
inaugurated : the grandest scheme of hu- 
man conception, which is to revolution- 
ize the trade of the whole world, which is 
to pour into the lap of this great republic 
the wealth of the Indies, and make tribu- 
tary to our commercial enterprise all the 
nations of the earth. And it is one of the 
grandest and most sublime moral spec- 
tacles the history of the world has ever 
presented, that in the midst of this terrible 
wasting contest we are able to project and 
carry on such a scheme as this. A scheme 
which will do what built up Palmyra in 
the wilderness, and which has enabled 
England for the last hundred years to con- 
trol the political destinies, and commer- 
cial interests of the whole world. 

The tenth resolution re-affirms the Mon- 
roe doctrine ; and what was that doctrine ? 
It was enunciated by James Monroe in 
1820 and 1821 that hereafter the conti- 
nent of North America should not be de- 
voted to European interests or coloniza- 
tion, or European interference. That 
hereafter the institutions and effete despo- 
tisms of the old world should not he 
allowed to faint the atmosphere that should 
pervade free republics, the happiest home 
for freedom that God in his mere}- has 
ever vouchsafed to mankind. We shall in 
a short time be able not only to suppress 
the rebellion, but to assert the Monroe doc- 
trine, and make these frog-eatin? French- 
men leave Mexico on the double-quick. 
(Great laughter and applause.) And we 
shall also be able to take care of our 
northern and northeastern boundaries. 
T he very moment that we are free from 
this great firey trial through which the 
country is now passing — and I shall live 
to see the time as you will — this great 
model republic, representing the only free 
government upon earth, will be supreme 
upon the continent. (Bravo.) This is as I 
believe the proud mission of our noble 
republic 

I am afraid, my fellow citizens, I have 
occupied vour attention too long with ref- 
erence to the resolutions of the Baltimore 
Convention. I know the whole people en- 
dorse them. I know our soldiers on the 
tented fields will endorse them ; those men 
who are -ready to lay down their lives for 
their country ; who have sacrificed happy 
homes that you and yours might he happy 



and prosperous. But after all the death of 
a soldier is a proud death, 



I " Whether upon the scaffold high. 

Or ill the armies' van ; 
The fifte.st j'lace for hian to die, 
Is where he dies for niau I" 
[Applause.] 

I have little to say In reference to the 
nomination of Governor Johnson, of Ten- 
nessee. He is known to the people of the 
country for his truth and fidelity in public 
life, and for the purity of his conduct in 
private life. He has breasted treason in 
the Senate Chamber of the United States. 
When the slave masters were threatening 
to distroy the Government, he stood faith- 
ful among the faithless, and since that time 
he has stood unflinching like a bulwark 
against treason in his own State. The peo- 
ple of the mountains of East Tennessee, are 
to day free, and they owe their freedom 
more to Andrew Johnson, than to any other 
man on earth. The mountain fastnesses 
have always been the chosen homes of 
freedom. The mountains of Eastern Ken- 
tucky, and of Western Virginia, to day con- 
tain a loyal people. The inhabitants of the 
mountains and valleys of Eastern Ten- 
nessee, of Northern Georgia, of Northern 
Alabama, are to day free, "and the last 
lingering ray of freedom and sunshine upon 
earth will gild the mountain top." It has 
always been so. The only free banner in 
Europe, gleams to night from among the 
Alps ; so it has always been in history and 
it will never be otherwise. 

Now, my fellow citizens, we commence 
this canvas under most favorable auspices; 
true, there are obstacles to be overcome, 
obstacles we shall have to contend with. 
The peace party are to make a nomination 
at Chicago, and what will that nomination 
be? They will either nominate a war man 
upon a peace platform or they will nomi- 
nate a peace man upon a war platform. 
[Laughter and Cheers.] But the people 
are right now and they will be then. Tliia 
peace party will come before y^u and tell 
you of our enormous debts, and of the ar- 
bitrary acts of the Administration; they 
will insist upon the withdrawal of your ar- 
mies ; they will insist upon peace, upon any 
terms; a peace which would degrade your 
manhood and make your children and your 
childrens' children to the last syllable of 
recorded time execrate and curseyour mem- 
ory. These miserable temporizers and truck- 
lers, if they could succeed, would allow 
themselves and their descendents to be- 
come the servant of servants, and the slave 
of the devil. [Laughter.] That is what 
they promise you in their platform. Yoa 



10 



fcear it everywhere, you hear it in their 
speeches, read it in their papers, .nd it is 
an ignoble, cowaidly, disgraceful ? irrender 
■which you will never sanction. 1 le coun- 
try has already poured out too nn eh of its 
heart's blood and expended too rai ch of its 
treasure to abandon the contest new. For 
what have you called a million m n to the 
field? For what have you pernitted a 
hundred thousand soldiers to acl ieve " a 
martyr's glory and find a martyr's g -ave" on 
the battlefield? Has it been to t,:ive the 
countrj' again into the hands of *ae slave 
power which has ruled it for the 1 .st sixty 
.years with a rod of iron ? 

These men in the front of Grint and 
Sherman are your open enemies ; ' ut there 
•are other covert enemies which } ou inaj' 
be called upon to meet. There was a Cleve- 
land convention most significant! niimed, 
for whatever its object may have i een, the 
effect of tlat convention is to cleave, in ^un- 
der the Union party, if it is to 1 ave any 
effect. But, my fellow-citizens, G. n. John 
C. Fremont, the i-'athfinder, has no .v struck 
oat upon a path which will never lead him 
to the Presidency ot the United i: tates. — 
(Applause.) I undertook faithful!;' to car- 
ry his standard through the camuaign of 
1856, but upon that standard were emblaz- 



oned " free epeech, free press, free men 
free labor," and all that could animate the 
heart of the true patriot. Those principles 
are eternal; they live to-night, and they will 
be perpetuated in the grand Union party of 
this country. If the standard bearer is 
struck down, a million hearts will erect 
that standard and bear it forward. 

My fellow-citizens, I thank you ; I thank 
my personal friends through \Thom i have 
been enabled for the first time to address 
the citizens of Washington. How changed 
the circumstances which surround us now 
from those which surrounded us three years 
ago when treason was rampant in the Con- 
gress of the United States, when a coward- 
ly, traitorous old man held reign in the 
White House, surrounded by a Cabinet 
whose only object was to assist him in 
jilundering the cuuntr}-, and in subverting 
the liberties of the people. How changed 
is Washington to-night! Whatever may 
be done heretofore she is now sound to the 
core. Her great heart beats responsive to 
the cause of the I nion, and her step 
throughout the victorious campaign on 
which we have entered will be to the mu- 
sic of the Union. 

The speaker as he took his seat was 
greeted with enthusiastic cheers. 



SPEECH OF H(}N. J, W. PATTERSON. 

At the conclusion of the rer larks of Mr. Lane, the President said : 
" Yotx will next hear from t le Granite Hills of New Hampshire. I have 
the honor now to present to y 'U the Hon. J. W. Patterson, of New Hamp- 
shire." 

Mr. Patterson, on coming fc ward, said : 



Fellow-citizens, we have come tiiis even- 
ing as members of a great national party 
to ratify and approbate the actio i of the 
Convention of the Union men of *be loyal 
States that lately assembled at B;.ltimore! 
We have met to accept their pla form of 
principles, and to ratify their non inations 
for the Presidency and the V'ice Fre'^idency ; 
and for one, I do not regret that ve meet 
here as partisans, for parties are issential 
in all free States. 

Rational liberty. Constitutional law, and 
constant, absolute progress in civilization, 
will soon perish where parties hav.' ceased 
to exist. Imminent peril, or an all pervad- 
ing enthusiasm, may and has, foi a brief 
space, fused all differences and impelled a 
whole people into some great and sublime 
movement, like that for the rescve of the 
Holy Sepulchre, or like that witi essed at 



the outbreak of this great struggle of the 
slave power against the tide-wave of uni- 
versal emancipation, but it cannot extend 
through long periods, and would not be safe 
if it could. 

The moral force generated by the contact 
of parties is absolutely necessary to carry 
forward measures of national and perma- 
nent importance on the one hand, and on 
the other to stay the tendency of society 
when it would be borne away to its lasting 
injury by weak or unscrupulous leaders. 
It will be understood, of course, that I am 
not speaking of temporary but of perma- 
nent parties, such as the whigs and tories 
in England, the tederalists and republicans, 
whigs and democrats in our own political 
history, and the conservatives and radicals 
of all time. 

Revolutionary periods more than all 



11 



others demand both the impulses and the 
restraints of parties. Great power is de- 
uiand='d to give the proper momentum, but 
when the nation has acquired the swift 
flight of these heated epochs, it must feel 
the brealis of conservatism pressed home, 
that society may not be precipitated into 
the gulp of anarchy. 

While we should be quick to discover 
and inexorable in our purpose to bring to 
light any treason lurking beneath the folds 
of party, we should from a regard to public 
safety give a large liberty to the exercise of 
private judgment within the limits of loy- 
alty. 

The central principles which give life and 
cohesion to political organizations, and 
which they seek to realize in laws and in- 
stitutions, should be vital, comprehensive, 
and worthy to be perpetuated through all 
time. 

History tells us that parties which have 
their birth in revolutionary periods are 
more elevated in purpose and pure in ac- 
tion than those that have their origin in the 
quiet, piping times of peace. 

Now, gentlemen, how is it in respect to 
our platform of principles? 

I say nothing about the platform of our 
opponents, for that is known, and read, and 
despised of all men. (Laughter and ap- 
plause.) It is a platform of paradoxes. 
They profess great economy, but stand 
ready in every legislature of tl)e land, to 
vote away the people's money by millions, 
if by so doing they ean break down and 
ruin the Administration which God has set 
for the preservation and perpetuation of 
our institutions of liberty. They clamor 
for a more vigorous prosecution of the war ; 
but in Congress and out of Congress, in 
season and out of season, they oppose every 
measure looking to an increase of the 
army, or designed to give it greater effi- 
ciency. They resolved and re-resolved that 
it is our duty to get down on our bellies, 
and crawl as though the curse of God was 
upon us, up to the perjured traitors who 
have covered the land with suffering and 
sorrow, that we may lick their hands and 
beg for peace. They claim to be the friends 
of liberty, and yet they " compass sea and 
land" that they may make one more slave, 
and pledge the divine government to the 
perpetuation of the bondage of black men. 

Let us now turn from this mosaic of con- 
tradictions, this patch-work creed of men, 

" That bawl for freedom in their genseleBs mood, 
And still revolt when truth would set ihem tree," 

to the platform which the civilization of 
the age has built for us, and which will 



hereafter be held in a proud historic re- 
membrance by our children. 

We have selected for the suffrages of the 
nation, statesmen of experience who have 
i'lustrated the genius of our institutions, 
and represent the common industry and 
common sense of tlie masses of our popula- 
tion. Their ability and patriotism have 
been developed and tested by the severe 
discipline of practical life. 

Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson 
were born and reared among the people, 
and have entered into their labors and sac- 
rifices. They appreciate the popular wants, 
sympathies, and modes of thought, and 
are destined to be the chosen rulers of those 
who are now redeeming from the grnsp of 
treason with their treasure and their blood, 
the institutions of Government which our 
fathers laid upon the foundations of liOerty. 

Men of more brilliant genius and more 
profoundly versed in the philosophy of 
government than our Chief Magistrate may 
be found, but few possess in higher degree 
that wisdom which results from a rare com- 
bination of qualities, and which fits men to 
guide the affairs of a great nation in times 
of imminent peril than he. His integrity is 
a part of his statesmanship. 

The continued exaltation of the President 
will be due, under God, to the general and 
abiding confidence of the country in his 
honesty and his policy, and to the peril of 
change in the midst of civil war. 

There may have been mistakes and even 
wrongs under his administration ; the vul- 
tures of trade may have fattened on the 
treasures of the people, and the innocent at 
times suffered violence, but these are attri- 
butable to the extent of the operations, not 
to a want of integrity or efficiency in the 
Government. We may as justly charge 
such abuses upon the Divine Government, 
as upon our civil Administration. The ac- 
cidents due to gravitation do not impugn 
the wisdom of the law, and the same prin- 
ciple holds in the administration of civil 
afl'nirs. 

We of the East should have been glad to 
have had one of our own sons put in nom- 
ination for the second place of trust, but 
these are no times for bickering about 
places and honors, and as a New Hamp- 
shire man I pledge the nominees, not 
only the vote of my State, but the cordial 
and multitudinous support of all New Eng- 
land, for she is 

True to the last of her kith and her kin. 

But, to return to the platform from which 
we have wandered, we oppose the estab- 
lishment upon this continent of monarch- 



12 



fcai institutions through fraud or ijrce by 
any power whatever. [Loud and pr )longed 
applause.] We claim that we are impelled 
to this action by a decent respec to the 
rights of sister republics, as well a b^' the 
instinct of self-preservation. This western 
continent of ours was concealed f >r more 
than five thousand years by the God of 
nations, in the wide wastejof wate: , to the 
end that it might be the home of he last, 
best birth of civil and religious libc ty, and 
that it might furnish a broad and :ntram- i 
•melled arena witliin which the bi leficent 
triumphs of a christian civilixatio . might 
unfold their glories among the lal 'st gen- 
erations of our children. And we cannot 
innocently, we cannot safely suffer the foot 
of any foreign despot to pollute thi ; inher- 
itance of freedom. [Applause.] Again, i 
we claim in our platform to be tne con- ] 
stanl friends of the soldier, and to have per- 
petual sympathy with those brave boys and 
brothers of ours who have gone forth from 
their queit homes, and now stan'! in the 
panoph'ofthe Union on the slippery field 
■of battle, or lie in bloody graves and nar- 
row trenches, dug by the hand of traitors. 
Nor shall our sympathy spend i'self in 
heartless, fruitless words of prom'^e; but 
we will give to tliem support and uiccour 
till victory crowns their efforts. Living 
their deeds shall be honored, and dying 
their memories shall be cherished in our 
literature and monuments, for 

Oh. if there he on this earthly sphere 

A boon, an offering. Keavcn holds dear, 

'Tis the last liljation liberty draws 

Irora the heart that bleeds and breaks in ! er cansp. 

Again, gentlemen, we go for t e utter 
annihilation of slavery, the moth* r of all 
our woes. [Great applause.] \V« go for 
this by the repeal of fugitive sla\ ^ laws. 
We go for this in bills of reconstiuction. 
We go for this in presidential pr clama- 
tions of emancipation. [Applause.] And 
above all, and over all, we go for this by 
such an amendment of ihe Constit' tion as 
ehali secure freedom upon every for t of the 
republic, from the Lakes to the Gul '; from 
the storm beaten coast of the Atlantic to 
where the Pacific sleeps on the golden 
sands of California. [Loud appla'ise.] 

But, gentlemen, we are told that we have 
no constitutional right to do thi . Oh! 
That is the plea of tyrants in ev ?ry age, 
when they wish to strengthen themi 'Ives in 
oppression. Men wielding irres' onsible 
power and conscious of wrong, alwa; s skulk 
behind letters patent, iiarchment fo -ms and 
prescriptive rights, and there taking sanctu- 
ary claim to be beyond the reach < f civili- 
Jiation. 



But fortunately the forecast of OUf fil* 
thers, enlightened by experience, antici- 
pated this refuge of arbitrary power, and 
placed in the Constitution itself a provis- 
ion for its amendment. 

There are but two exceptions to the 
power thus conveyed, and they prove the 
right to change that instrument in other 
particulars. 

But if we had no such legal right given 
to us in the organic law, the people of this 
country to-day have the same right to 
amend the Constitution so that it may con- 
form to the moral life of the nation, and to 
the changed conditions of the limes, that 
our fathers had originally to adopt the old 
" articles of confederation," or to transform 
them into the present fundamental law. 
[Loud applause.] 

Let those gentlemen who oppose an 
amendment to the Constitution remember 
that that instrument was made by men who 
had set aside both the law and the Consti- 
tution of England, and who based their ac- 
tion in these high matters upon an inalien- 
able birthright. 

Revolutions are a law unto themselves. 
Laws, like language and science, must 
change so as to express the prevalent ideas 
of an advancing civilization. Why, the 
tongue of Chaucer is not to-day the lan- 
guage of England. The laws of Edward 
and Anne are not the laws of Queen Victo- 
ria. The science of Bacon is not the sci- 
ence of the 19th century; and we should 
remember also that the undisputed princi- 
ples of the common law of England, that 
our liberties and privileges as Englishmen, 
were at successive epochs opposed as vio- 
lent innovations upon the iron code of pro- 
scription, and have been consecrated by the 
blood of men whom English law condemned 
and executed as the enemies of society. 
Maxims of law and precedents of history, 
have been drags upon the chariot of time 
before our day, and must not be suffered to 
arrest its progress here. 

Yes, gentlemen, we have the right to do 
this thing, and is it not high time that it 
was done ? (Cries of " Yes, yes," and ap- 
plause.) Have not we suffered enough 
from this curse of slavery ? (Cries of " Yes, 
yes.") What has it done for us? It has 
been the apple of discord in all our na- 
tional life, and now it has ])lunged us in 
the saddest, bloodiest war known to his- 
tory. It has squandered our hard earn- 
ings, and laid in untimely graves hun- 
dreds of thousands of onr brave boys. It 
is high time that we should cast out this 
f"iul fiend. Why, don't tell me that it >s 
slavery that has brought on the war — it 
was " firing on Fort Sumter," they say. 



18 



(Laughter.) Firing on Fort Sumter was 
simply an incident, the antecedent of the 
war, not the underlj'ing cause. Go back 
to the history of the revolution of 1776. 
Now, in that revolution it was not the 
writs of assistance, or the stamp act, or 
the tax of a few pennies on tea that 
brought about that great struggle. These 
were only the incidents that preceded it. 
Our fathers saw in these simple incidents, 
however, an effort of the British ministry 
to deprive them of their old, traditional, 
inherited rights and liberties as English- 
men They saw in those measures a pur- 
pose of the British ministry to tax them 
without representation, and that was the 
outrage that led to the war. But what did 
that little handful of saintly heroes do 
when at length they had been once plunged 
into the war? Did they sit down and fold 
their arms and count tiie cost of liberty, 
and conclude that they had belter com- 
promise? Thank Heaven, not ihey ! That 
meanness never entered into any man's 
heart but the tory's. No, they determined 
to expel tiie tyrant that would enslave 
them from the land, and they made them- 
selves strong in God by gathering up, in 
language as imperishable as the eternal \ 
hills that stood around them, the ripe 
fruits of all past revolutions ; an J under- 
laying the struggle with that sublime de- 
claration, that " all men are created free and 
equal," that "they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights, 
among which are life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness." On those principles 
they went through the revolution. May 
we not learn a lesson from them ? 

Now, standing as we do, their children 
in this republic, which we have inherited 
from them, and with those lights of his- 
tory flaming all around us, what interpre- 
tation must we give to this great struggle 
which for three years has " walked in 
darkness and wasted at noonday." I Re- 
lieve no man pretends that it is a people 
struggling for freedom, and employing the 
extreme right of revolution. The South 
does not claim that we have deprived her 
of any of her rights, or laid upon her any 
unequal burdens. No, the historic charac- 
ter of this struggle is and can be nothing 
else than a gigantic rebellion of the spirit 
of slavery against the spirit of universal 
freedom. That is what it is, and nothing 
else. It is an effort to overthrow the re- 
public on more than half its territory. 
And Southern men honestly and frankly 
confess it. No Northern man, no North- 
ern fanatic even ever pronounced denun- 
ciations more strong and sweeping against 
slavery, or ever i)ut on record nobler and 



sublime • utterances for liberty than did 
Madiso? , Jefferson, Randolph, Henry, and 
all the rominent statesmen of that early 
period i f the republic. 

Spea> ing of Jefferson, Stephens, the- 
Vice P esident of this factitious confede- 
racy, s; id : "The prevailing ideas enter- 
tained 'Dy him and most of the leading 
statesm n at the time of the formation of 
the old Jonstitution were, that the enslave- 
ment of the African was in violation of the 
laws of nature ; that it was wrong in prin- 
ciple, socially, morally, and politically." 
Madison " thought it wrong to admit in^ 
the Constitution the idea that there should 
be prop rfy in man." And in a discussion 
in Congi'ess upon a memorial introduced 
by Dr. i^'ranklin for the abolition of sla- 
very, h. said: "The dictates of humanity^ 
the principles of the people, the national 
safety, and, perhaps, prudent policy, re- 
quire it of us." Required what? Why, the 
abolitio-i of slavery ; [loud applause,] and 
that Ci me from a slaveholder, and the 
father ( !" the Constitution. It was the uni- 
versal rentiment of that day. We have- 
made r ) progress in this matter since '7& 
and 87 fanatics as we are. I will admit 
that so ;e men have exercised with a great 
deal of rcedom the liberty of the press and 
the lib '.rij of speech guarantied by the 
Constit 'tion to all in defending the faitb 
once d livered to the saints; but I claim 
that it ■ i a wrong done to history, a wrong 
done tc the nnghty dead, to give to Garri- 
son am; to Phillips the glory which belongs- 
to Jeffe son and Madison. 

The )Outh began the agitation of this 
questio i. They sought to counteract pub- 
lic opin.on and establish slavery from mo- 
tives self-interest. They first promul- 
gated t le foul dogma, that slavery was the 
normal condition of the black man from 
the sar e consideration. It was their agi- 
tation rf the question which led to the war 
with M xico, that resulted in the independ- 
ence ol Texas. It was that which brought 
Texas nto the Union. It. was their agita- 
tion tl it filibustered in Central America. 
It was '.his that led to the Compromise of 
1820, and abrogated that compromise in 
1854. It was this that led to the war with 
Mexico, which put us in possession of Cali- 
fornia. And when California, one bright 
mornin ^, came rapping at the doors of the 
Rppubi'c, and asked to be admitted as a 
free Stite, what happened then? Why, 
the tra tor Toombs, rising in his place in 
the Hoi se of Representatives, and swinging 
his lor g skinny finger about his black, 
curly ]■ cks, invoked the God of Discord to 
reign ii, the Hall until the South should ob- 
tain its rights ; and what were they ? The 



14 



right to bring California into this Union 
against the wishes of its people as a slave 
State in order to give the preponderance to 
the South for all time to come in the na- 
tional councils. But at length the long 
contest has passed from the arena of de- 
bate to the arbitrament of arms, and now 
it rests with you and with me to say whether 
we will stand up for the Union as it was 
and the Constitution as it is, in spirit to 
the glorious end, against those who would 
break up the Union for the sake of trans- 
forming the Constitution into a fundamen- 
tal charter of a great slavo-cratic aristoc- 
racy. 

It is the old struggle over again above 
the very ashes of the men who fell in the 
first great conflict for liberty. It is a con- 
test between a christian civilization and a 
barbarism. Some men express great fears 
of the passions of parties, and the policy of 
administrations, but, gentlemen, we need 
not fear, for the policy of God will [)revail 
in this contest. If there is a God of nations 
who moves on the pathway of history, he 
is an infidel who does not see him "riding 
upon the whirlwind and directing the 
storm." 

If you and I would become co-laborers 
in the grandest ejioch of human history, 
then let us cast in our lot in this great effort 
to exorcise the foul fiend from the Republic. 
Absolute conquest, complete subjugation, 
my friend has styled it, is the shortest, the 
simplest, and in my judgment the only so- 
lution of this difficult problem, which, like 
the ghost of Banquo, would never down at 
our bidding, and which has bafiied the 
genius of our wisest and best statesmen in 
times past, and rested like a mildew and a 
blight upon the prosperity of tl'e country 
from the inception of the Government. 

Some men talk about compromise. Com- 
promise ! Why, you may compromise with 
the plague, with the cholera, with a typhoon 
in mad fury, but you cannot compromise 
with a revolution midway in its progress. 
The thing is not known to history. It can- 
not be done. The English people attempted 
to compromise the great revolution of 
1640, and what happened? Why, the 
smothered elements of that revolutiou burst 
out again in 1680, and the purpose of 
Providence was then realized ; and so will 
it always be. 

Our path lies straight onward through the 
sea. Beyond, the land lies broad and rich 
and beautiful. The wealth and population of 
the country have increased during these 
years of waste and blood, and in this we 
have a prophecy, a vision rising out of the 
fire-mist that envelops us, of the unparal- 
leled prosperity, strength and grandeur 



which will open upon our eyes, when the 
untrammeled enterprise of free labor is 
turned upon the resources of the land. 

Why should any man wish by compound- 
ing with treason to saddle upon the indus- 
try of the loyal States, uncounted millions 
of southern debt? Why should any man 
wish to emasculate the industrial forces of 
the country by leaving the dry rot of slavery 
in the framework of society ? 

If one half of the wealth, the phj'sical 
force, and the intellectual power which has 
been expended in efforts to bolster up this 
miserable institution had been expended in 
developing the resources of our country, 
the Atlantic and the Pacific would long 
since have been locked in an embrace of 
iron; long since would our country have 
been the rich centre of a vast and civilizing 
commerce between Asia and Europe; long 
since should we have been the acknowl- 
edged head of nations in all that makes a 
people great and glorious. But all this and 
more is possible to us in the not distant 
future, if we will but purge the veins of the 
body politic of this consumption, this scrof- 
ula, which is dragging it down to death. 

The most vigorous imngination would 
fail in an attempt to foreshadow the happi- 
ness and glory of an intelligent !>nd pop- 
ulous Republic, stretching over half a con- 
tinent, filled with churches, charities and 
schools ; harmonious in the application of 
its capital and industry, and devoting its 
unmeasured resources to the uplifting of 
the children of sorrow in every clime. 

Wish we. dare we, to go forth from this 
baptism of fire into the light of a peaceful 
age, without accomplishing the work which 
Providence has set for us to do? 

Our fathers made themselves free in the 
first great struggle for liberty. Shall we 
make no progress in this ? We are sometimes 
pointed to the sufferings of our soldiers and 
of our people. Why, have you forgotten the 
sorrows of Valley Forge? Do we not re- 
member how our fathers walked for nine- 
teen miles with naked feet, staining the 
spotless snow with their blood at every 
foot-fall ? And how they fell dead as they 
stood around their watch-fires ; and when 
the spring of that midnight of the revolu- 
tion dawned upon them, and the British 
Government offered to compromise, do you 
remember how they spurned with ineffable 
contempt the offer from the British throne. 

They had spent their money. They had 
buried their dead out of sight; and they 
were determined themselves to die or be 
free. They teach us lessons of fortitude 
and heroic endeavor in the cause of free- 
dom. Shall not those who are suffering 
and battling for liberty in the Old World, 



u 



as they turn their eyes with the " star of 
empire" westward, behold here a people free 
in deed as in word? Why, suppose that 
you settle this contest by compromise, and 
not by conquest, what then ? Would Bull 
Run be piled with monuments to dead 
traitors? Would Gettysburg lift marbles 
that would speak the glories of your chil- 
dren fallen for liberty and Government ? 
Would the shafts reared to the dead of both 
sections rise side by side at Antietam to 
nurse the smothering, rankling liate that 
ere long would burst forth and renew the 
bloody conflict of to-day? Whose history 
of the contest would be accepted by both 
sections? Who would claim the ashes 
of your dead fathers that sleep beneath 
the ashes of your brothers and children 
at Yorktown, and other old batttle fields 
of the Revolution ? 

I tell you, my fellow-citizens, there is but 
one course left to us. We must fight — I 
repeat it, we must fight. [Applause.] 

I do not claim here and now for the illit- 
erate, untutored African all the privileges 
and rights wliich have been wrought out 
for us. as we were prepared to receive them 
by revolutions and many generations of 
an intelligent and christian ancestry. What 
purely political privileges it maj^be wise to 
bestow upon four millions of beings just 
lifted from the ignorance and degradation 
of servitude to the light of liberty in the 
very heart of the republic, is a problem 
which the logic of events will soon solve, 
as it has solved other problems past find- 
ing out by our puny powers. 

But what I do claim here and now is this : 
that the law of natural justice, as laid down 
both in the civil and divine code, gives to 
every being the largest measure of liberty he 
is capable of improving. Less than that is 
despotism ; more than that is anarchy, and 
anarchy is despotism. I am perfectly well 



aware t' at rational liberty must be secured 
to any )eople by laying upon them such 
restrain s of law as their want of moral and 
intellect lal culture may demand ; but that 
does no justify slavery, and least of aU 
slavery .s it exists among ourselves ; for it 
is not a form of civil government, but sim- 
ply and nurely a domestic and social insti- 
tution. Laving its origin and support in self- 
ishness. It abrogates the marriage con- 
tract, ai d the right of property ; it ignores 
those nutural prerogatives and primal vir- 
tues which are the essence of all law, and 
the foui dation stones on which rests the 
whole f; brie of social and civil institutions. 
It seeks to perpetuate its own existence, 
not by the ministrations of learning, justice, 
and reli; ion — the first duty of every State — 
but by ignoring the moral and intellectual 
being o'' its subjects, and attempting to 
crush 01. t all their manhood and woman- 
hood b," its cunning inventions of diabol- 
ism. 

I clai 1, therefore, now that the South has 
put the .orch to its own magazine of infer- 
nal pyrt technics, that the black man shall 
have th right to nossess his own wife and 
cliildrer to enjoy the fruits of his industry, 
to advarce in civilization according to the 
measure of his capacity. (Loud applause.) 
And if 

" in the lowest deep 
A lo' ar deep still threatens to devour," 

it is du( to those from whom we have in- 
herited lur liberties, it is due to those to 
whom V e hope to transmit them, it is due 
to those who have already fallen in this 
great st uggle, it is due to the cause of civil 
liberty .md the unity of history, to the liv- 
ing, — tL it we should plunge this foul fiend 
of disco 1 into that wide woml) of uncreated 
night. [The speaker retired amid great 
applaus.T.J 



SPEECH OF HON. J, M. HOWARD. 



Senator Howard, having been introduced ij the President of the meeting, 
spoke as follows : 



Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens: As 
one of the representatives of the great 
Northwest, I greet you. A region of country 
which at the formation of the Constitution 
possessed scarcely a thousand white set- 
tlers, speaking the English tongue, now, in 
1864, with tlie united voices of its seven 
and a half millions of free inhabitants, in- 



vokes the rest of the nation to stand firmly 
by the o'd Union ! The genius of the North- 
west is .3 Take. Never doubt her. Her love 
of libert , her love of nationality, her love 
of the T iiion will prove too strong for all 
temptat ons. She has been insolently and 
arrogm ly promised by the rebels the free 
navig^t'jn of the Mississippi, and other 



16 



commercial advantages, if she would with- 
draw her powerful hand from the present 
combat with traitors. You have read her 
firm reply in the heaps of her martyred 
sons at Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Port 
Hudson, and other fields, where they sealed 
with their blood their fidelity to the great 
cause. 

I onl}' speak worthily of their character 
when 1 predict the continued display of the 
same heroic devotion until this base-born 
slaveholders' conspiracy shall be totally 
overthrown, and its tyrant leaders be made 
to bite the dust. I only speak worthily of 
their character when I say they will for- 
ever look with abhorrence upon every at- 
tempt to break up the Union of the States, 
as they do with disdain upon the offer of 
thieves to give what the true owners have 
abundant power to retain and hold, not 
onl}^ against a set of crazy plunderers, but 
against the world in arms. They will make 
no terms with traitors, but those of uncon- 
ditional surrender. 

As a Northwestern man, I hail the occa- 
sion as one of high import. It vindicates 
not only the wisdom and justice of the 
fathers of the Republic, but, what is cer- 
tainly' not less worthy of our regard, the 
justice of Heaven. Seventy-seven years 
ago those revered ancestors, by the famous 
Jeifersonian ordinance, consecrated that 
vast territory to freedom. In the language 
of Mr. Webster, "they impressed upon the 
very soil an incapacity to bear up any but 
free men." The demon of slavery made 
open war upon the beneficent Government 
of our fathers the moment the President 
was elected from the same old Northwest. 
Its imps sought to entrap and assassinate 
him on his way to the capital, but a pro- 
tecting God shielded his days from the 
knife of the assassin, and enabled Abraham 
Linco^i to show to the world that the prin- 
ciples of that ordinance of freedom had 
sunk deep into his heart. The proclama- 
tion of emancipation was but a natural out- 
growth of those principles. Was it not the 
justice of Heaven that thus snatched up the 
representative of the free Northwest, and 
made him the standard-bearer and apostle 
of the friends of free government against 
slave-driving treason? Was it not a re- 
cognition that the ordinance of 1787, like 
its prototype, the Declaration of Independ- 



ence, was an inspiration of divine justice in 
the hearts of our fathers, and of the pur- 
pose of Heaven, that the people distin- 
guished by it should, as they have done, 
act a leading part in maintaining its prin- 
ciples? Else, why was an humble peasant 
boy, born in slaveholding Kentucky, pen- 
niless and friendless, transferred to the old 
Northwest, to become there the high, if not 
the highest illustration of the political as 
well as the social fruits of those principles? 
And why, else, has it happened that the pre- 
sent heroic leader of our armies, [cheers,] 
before the point of whose sword the rebel 
hosts are slinking .iwaj' — how has it hap- 
pened that the gallant, wise, and fearless 
Grant is also a child of the old Northwest ? 
[Great applause.] 

With these striking signs before you, do 
not doubt that those States will remain 
true to the cause we have in hand; do not 
doubt that they will stand faithfully by 
him who in the midst of unparalleled diffi- 
culties, has for the last tbree-and-a-half 
years born our standard onward with an 
eye single to the good of his country and 
the permanent maintenance of the free prin- 
ciples which constitute its true glory ; do 
not doubt that Mr. Lincoln will again re- 
ceive the votes of the Northwestern States, 
as he did in 1860. Let not the rebels, let 
not not those who sympathize with them 
at home or abroad, indulge the delusion 
that the Northwest will ever fail or falter 
in maintaining the honor of the flag and 
supporting those faithful public servants 
who defend the Constitution and the Union. 
Let them not indulge the dream that she 
will, in the coming crisis, forget the debt 
of gratitude the whole country owes to the 
tried, sagacious and honest Lincoln, or to 
the almost martyr life of the true-hearted 
and resolute Johnson ; but let them be pre- 
pared to see those elder daughters of the 
old Union coming hand in hand with their 
fair sisters from the other side of the Mis- 
sisippi to the Capitol in 1865, and, by their 
votes, saying to our chosen candidates, 
"Well done good and faithful servants ; we 
confide to your honor, we entrust to your 
patriotism the Government of the United 
States, and toe enjoin upon you to see to it 
thai the war for the popular Government be 
prosecuted to a speedy and successful close!" 



17 



SPEECH OF HON. C. B. DENIO. 

The Hon. C. B. Denio, of California, was the next speaker. 

The President, on introducing Mr. Denio, said: Gentlemen, I have now 
the pleasure of introducing to you a gentleman from the Pacific coast, one 
whom we formerly knew on the Mississippi as the Mississippi Bricklayer. 
[Applause.] 

Mr. Denio, on coming forward, said: 

Ordinarily, fellow-citizens, I should feel 
that I could say somethings in favor of rat- 
ifying the nomination of Abraham Lincolo, 
and something connected with the great 
and momentous issues that are to-day being 
cnncted upon the theatre of the world, lint 
we have been so long in the habit, fellow- 
citizens — at least here in the Ciipitul — of 
hearing the greasy meclianics and mudsills 
talked about, that some of us have begun 
to think that perhaps it was time that " we 
had no rights," as was said of the black 
men, " that the lords of creation were bound 
to respect." 

Three years ago the working men of this 
nation nominated Abraham Lincoln. We 
took him from among the laboring men. 
We elected him in a constitutional way to 
be President of the United States. Since 
that time he has been President of Dut a 
part of it, and we propose to renominate 
him and re-elect him until he is in fact Pres- 
ident of the whole United States. I heard 
a gentleman a i'aw moments since, before I 
got on the stand, saying, we had better 
make hiiu Dictator, and appoint him per- 
petual President. I do not think we will 
do that; but it is the resolution, the firm 
and fixed purpose of the masses of this na- 
tion to continue renominating Abraham 
Lincoln until he is Presiilent of the entire 
United States. (Lo'td ap[)lause.) And at 
the end of four years, if that modern Ulys- 
ses of ours has not penetrated to the heart 
of the rebellion — but I guess he will — 
(Laughter and applause,) — if there is a 
solitary or lone county down in South Car- 
olina with the secession rag still floating, 
we will renominate " Old Abe" again. 
(Loud applause.) And we will continue 
renominating him, and electing him too, 
(renewed ajiplause) until he is President of 
the United States, and then we will let him 
retire to Springfield, and we will then take 
General Grant, or some other good man — I of slavery and the prosecution of the war. 



I have been now some three years from 
the Atlantic States. 1 have been over to 
that glorious. Union-loving California, 
where the Copperhead never hisses now. 
(Laughter and applause.) We have drivea 
the Biglers and the Wellers up into the ter- 
ritories. They are now doing what that 
great personage who first started a seces- 
sion movement about which old blind Mil- 
ton wrote, did, when he was cast over the 
battlements of Heaven. He didn't try to 
fight in the old place, but he heard of a new 
Republic on earth here, and a new class of 
beings, and he concluded to strike there. 

California will give Abraham Lincoln not 
less than 25,000 majority. (Great applause.) 
If you do not believe it, look at the Repre- 
sentatives that we send from California. 
Who are they ? They are men like John 
Conness. A merchant from the mountains 
of that glorious State, who loving his coun- 
try more than party, could sever all party 
ties when those ties were leading hiiu away 
from the cause of that country ; a man who 
was accustomed to listen to the bugle notes 
of the Democratic chieftains, when to be a 
Deinocrat was — excusable. (Laughter and 
applause) When the knights of the party 
still lived, when the plumed leaders like 
Douglas lived; but when this rebellion 
broke out, when these traitors sought to 
sever this nation and blast the hopes of the 
world, tlien they were no longer heeded. 

Look at our Representatives in the other 
branch of our National Congress. Dem- 
ocrats, all but one ; Cole, the life-long Re- 
publican from Santa Cruz, becomes almost 
a conservative when placed beside those two 
old Democrats, old Douglas men — Shannon 
the tinner and miner from our mountains, 
and Higbee from the plains. But as they 
express it themselves, and as is customary 
among California miners, they are both 
" down on the bed rock" on this question 



forGrant wonldacceptof a nomination from 
us, but he would not touch a nomination 
from that thing — that copper-colored con- 
cern — which is going to assemble in Chi- 
cago next month. (Laughter and applause.) 



(Laughter and applause.) I have heard 
Copperheads in this city say, (for I am sorry 
to say you have such even here) that some 
great reaction is going to take place ; and 
they are mourning over these young men 



18 



who are coming back in such a maimed 
condition, and those fallen heroes who 
slumber on the banks of our rivers. We 
are not complaining over these men. Much 
as we love them, the}' are willing sacrifices 
offered in a holy cause, filling as they are 
falling; others will take their places. We 
will wear out the young men, and then the 
old men will go; and let it now be under- 
stood by these men that we propose fighting 
as long as there is a particle of hope left. 

Yes, Mr. Chairman, when there is no 
hope, and when these small men who 
have broken into Congress at a moment, 
as it would seem, when God had for- 
gotten the world, (laughter,) or they never 
could have got there, [renewed laughter,] 
raise Constitutional quibbles against the 
Government, under the shallow pretense 
that they are in favor of these men, let 
us do as the pale-faced brother, Thomas 
Starr King, on the Pacific, said, " Wade 
through the Constitution, crush the re- 
bellion, and attend to these matters after- 
wards." 

I have no doubt, fellow-citizens, of the 
triumphant election of Mr. Lincoln. I 
shall do what I can to elect him. I shall 
do it upon the Pacific coast. I shall do 
it in Illinois. I shall do it in Wiscon- 
sin. The people are all ready to do it. 

I am expecting to leave your city with- 
in three or four days, but before I leave 
it I am expecting to hear that Grant has 
taken Richmond, and that he has sent 
Brute Butler in there to be the military 
governor. [Laughter and applause, and 
cries of " Amen."] 

And so say all the people, "Amen." 
[Renewed laughter and applause.] 

We are fighting, fellow-citizens, for 
something more than an ordinary dispute. 
The world is interested in this contest, 
and he is a coward and an ingrate who 
does not step forward and face the music. 
I noticed the other day a scene which 
made a deep impression upon me. While 
a company of these noble fellows, who 
were ordered to the front, were passing 
through your streets on their way, they 
were met by a train of ambulances con- 
veying those who were returning from the 
battle in a wounded condition, after hav- 
ing faithfully served their country. Ad- 
ditional patriotic fervor seemed to light 
up the countenances of these men as they 
gazed on the mangled bodies of their 
comrades; and as for myself, I then 
prayed that there might be no cessation 
of this war until the last rebel was dis- 
armed. It will soon be done. That old 
banner has got to wave over all this na- 
tion, and as one of the speakers to-night 



has said, when it does I am for having it 
wave all over this continent. [Vociferous 
applause.] 

A voice. — Over Mexico, sure. 

Mr. Denio. — Yes, sir, I am for driving 
Maximilian out if he ever comes here to 
stay, which I doubt. 

Let me say, lellow-cit'zens, that I nm 
anticipating a brilliant victory in Novem- 
ber, and another long before that on the 
sacred soil of Virginia. The determina- 
tion showed by tlie people to re-nominate 
Abraham Lincoln is equal to an army of 
100,000 men in weakening the backbone 
of the rebellion. (Loud applause.) They 
know that Uucle Abe, unlike some dis- 
tinguished men, never changes base. 
They know that Uucle Abe has placed a 
man at the head of the army of the Po- 
tomac who orders the " spades to the 
rear." (Ajiplause.) They know that »hut 
leader has crooked teeth, and that when 
he gets hold he can't let go. (Laughter 
and applause.) 1 knew General Grant in 
Galena years ago, and from what 1 knew 
of him then I can say he will take Rich- 
mond, and continue taking every point 
between him and the last traitor. (Ap- 
plause.) That is the destinj' of the array 
of the Potomac. (Renewed applause.) 
That is the man of that armj'. (Applause.) 
While our brave boys were storming the 
heights of Fort Donelson, the army of the 
Potomac was comparatively idle. But 
now, when Vicksburg is taken, when the 
Mississippi river is open, when the com- 
merce of a grateful and an industrious 
nation is floating up and down that great 
artery of commerce. General Grant as- 
sumes command of the army of the Po- 
tomac, and that army is now moving. 
Noble fellows will fall. I see you have 
one motto here — " Honor the dead." I 
too would honor the dead. It matters 
not from what State, or country, or clime 
may come the brave soldier who goes 
forth heroicallj to fight our country's 
battles, imbued with patriotic love for 
and faith in the justice of her sacred 
cause, in his devotion, nobly daring to 
die and offering his life as his last and only 
contribution on the altar of his country. 

And although, possibly, he may not be 
accomplished in education or polished 
with the graces, yet if he falls, expiring 
with his face toward the foe, though 
grimmed with smoke and covered with 
bloody wounds, yet every scar will contain 
the lines of beautj" fairer than Apollo's, 
and his memory, with Washington's, be 
faithfully enshrined in the hearts, of hig 
countrymen forever. 

I would erect a monument to every oaa 



1© 



eft^e>irave leaders who have fallen ; but 
the monument of all others which should 
come nearer reaching Heaven, I would say, 
should be the monument erected in honor of 
the unniimed heroes that have fallen in this 
fiifht. (Great applause.) Men whose names 
will never be known in history ; whose 
names will never, no never, be heard again, 
save when uttered in the little private cir- 
cle, it may be by the feeble widowed mother, 
or the husbandless wife, or the orphan 
boy. There, in those circles, is where these 
heroes are known. Let our country erect 
such a monument to them. Let these peo- 
ple at the Capital inaugurate th"? move. 
Let it spread and ramify all over the broad 
extent of our nation ; and we will send gold 
from the golden shores of California. We 
will rear a pile to the unnamed heroes. 
(Applause.) To the brave boys who have 
left their workshops, and others, who have 
gone forward to assert the dignity of the 
poor laborer. (Renewed applause.) Le 
us erect that monument, and let there be a 
plain inscription upon it: "Erected to the 
memury of the Unnamed Heroes, by their 
grateful country ;" and that is a sufficient 
in3cript!on. We will have to go to building 
this monument soon, for this thing of seces- 
sion is about played out. (Laughter.) 

Jt is said to be the custom of all nations 
to pay tribute to their dead and to their 
living heroes. The ancient Republic of 
Greece erected a magnificent temple called 
a pantheon, which travelers tell us, exists to 
this day. In it the inhabitants of that 
country delighted to inscribe the names of 
those heroes and statesmen that had ren- 
dered service in their day and generation. 
The sentiment which leads to such action, 
which leads men to build those temples, is 
one of the most lofty which has a home in 
the human doul. Other nations have done 
it. England has done it ; France has done 
it ; Russia has done it — indeed, all civilized 
and christian nations have done if. They 
have all erected their temples to the mem- 
ory of the patriotic, illustrious dead. 

We, too— this our own beloved land — this 
great Republic has also her pantheon, where 
she delights to perpetuate the memory of 
such men as Washington, JeSerson, Jack- 
son, Clay, — God bless his old name, — (ap- 
plause,) and Webster, and where she will 
delight to perpetuate the memory of honest 
old Abe Lincoln, the workingmeu's friend, 
but when Grant wears out this rebellion 
when its backbone is broken, in what tem- 
ple will the memory of their great men be 
found ? Echo answers where ? 

A voice. " Down in Liuby Prison." 

Mr. Dknio. No, not even in Libby Prison. 
No country on the wide extent of tbi>i globe 



will dare appropriate them, or sing pains 
of praise to their memory. But there is a 
place, i\ pantheon, beneath — far down in 
the lowest depths and realms of the universe 
— built from the foundation of the world, 
for such spirits as fell from the battlements 
of Heaven. There, where the atmosphere 
does not grow cold, (laughter and applause,) 
where the worm dieth not ; (renewed 
lau>.'hter,) there will the inhabitants delight 
to inscribe the names of Jefferson Davis, 
John B. Floyd, (laughter,) Mason and Sli- 
dell, Wm. L. Yance.v, (renewed laughter,) 
and that little man Wigfall, and " leading 
all the rest" the name of Clement L. Vallan- 
dighani,and along list (renewed laughter,) 
of lesser lights — lesser because less brave — 
Copperheads skulking around loyal com- 
munities, and hissing out their poison. 
Their names will be found there; their 
busts will be placed in prominent niches, 
(laughter,) and the inhabitants will ut- 
ter screams of fiendish delight to know that 
here on this earth, and in this great Re- 
public of ours, there has existed spirits — he- 
roes if you please to call them so — of vaster, 
more infernal malignity, and whose birth- 
right to eternal infamy is immeasurably 
greater than their own. There these men's 
names will be found. I am waiting for it, 
though I never expect to read their names 
in that place, because / arti a Unien man. 
(Great laughter and applause.) 

But we have got some members of Con- 
gress yet here, who will read their names, 
newed laughter and applause.) I believe 
there are some eight or nine from Illinois. 
Renewed laughter.) 1 used to know them 
in days of yore. I have met them in legis- 
lative council ; but some of them — I thank 
you — have got considerably converted. 
(Laughter.) I was talking to one of them 
the oUier day. Says I, " How do you stand 
I on the Union question ?" " Why," says he, 
"Denio, Ihave got to be a decent man." 
I am down on the bed rock on this aboli- 
tion question. I got to be an abolitionist 
when they commenced firing on Fort Sum- 
ter; and I commenced going from hoaseto 
house among my neighbors and told them, 
' Now for once the Democrats have an op- 
portunity to prove to the world that they 
are decent men ; and told them that I was 
going to try to be one.' " The result was 
he was sent to Congress, but not by Peace 
Democrats, and I am glad he was. He is 
a noble fellow, (applause,) and we are going 
to send him back again from Illinois. (Re- 
newed applause.) We are going to take up 
such men, and no other will ever be sent 
back here again. [Applause.]) 

Fellow-citizens, send out your influence 
from the capital here. Remember that we 



20 



are at work not only for ourselves to-day, 
but our boys are growing up around us. 
And those who have not boys growing up 
around them, ought to have as soon as pos- 
sible. [Great laughter and applause.] 

If we are brave fathers we will put a 
termination to this war. We will do it now, 
60 that our boys may have peace and quiet. 
Do it so effectually that no one will ever 
dare <ngain to raise his sacrilegeous hand 
agaiust that banner. I have an abiding 
faith in that banner; it is a good one as it 
is, but it is going to be altered a little. 
That blue spot is not large enough to con- 
tain the stars. As we Lave got to enlarge 
that, we will have to enlarge both parts 
of the flag. We have got to make the 
stars smaller; we have got to do some- 
thing, for stars are being added to it almost 
every month. 

We are told by the Apostle John, in his 
apocaliptic vision, that he saw a mighty 
angel come down from Heaven, clothed in 
a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, 
and his face shone as the sun, and his feet 
as pillars of fire; and he held in his hand 
a little book open, and he placed one foot 
upon the sea, and the other upon the land, 
and he cied with a loud voice to the na- 
tions of the earth. So shall we, fellow-citi- 
zens, soon see this dark and damning cloud 
of war roll away, revealing the fair genius 
of our 'country, clothed with flowers, re- 
splendent with glory, her brow encircled 
with the cloud of victory, attended by peace, 
Heaven-born peace, and placing one foot 
upon the sea and the other on the land, 
and she, too, will open the volume of her 
political creed, and from that volume she 
will thunder forth to the nations of the 
world the sublime doctrine of peace on 
earth, and good will to all nations and peo- 
ples, to every man, to every inhabitant over 
all her vast domain, liberty and union, 
now and forever, until time shall be no 
more. 

One word about that proclamation, and 
I am done. Some of the friends of Mr. 
Fremont, the Pathfinder — who, by the way. 
has taken the wrong path to the Presi- 
dency — have claimed for him that he was 
the author of that great Proclamation of 
Freedom to a down-trodden race, and that 
Lincoln has stolen his thunder. Allow me 
to say, that neither Fremont nor Lincoln 
was the author of the Emancipation Proc- 
lation: God himself was the author. He 



works by agents here on earth. Abraham 
Lincoln is but the instrument in his hands— 
iiis Commanding General, and the toiling 
millions not only of this land, but of the 
world, aie on his staff. The war is waged, 
the line of battle is formed. On the one 
side stand the stalwarth laborers of the 
world ; on the other, the aristocracy, the 
slave-owners, the men who contemn the 
sons of toil, the proud and haughty of the 
world ; and as sure as God is just, the issue 
will be determined upon the side of Justice 
and of freedom. The thackl< 3 will be 
stricken from the last slave, and the slave- 
owning aristocrat will be drafted by the 
great dispenser of justice into the ranks of 
the laborers. No three hundred dollar ex- 
emption clause in that law. 

He must shoulder the axe, and take up 
the implement of toil, and if he fails behind 
in the workshop and the field, and is not — 
in the dny of labor — equal to the Freed 
Slave of ihe South, or the sturdy and intel- 
ligent mechanic of the north, be must meet 
the consequences, for the fiat of Jehovah 
and not of Abraham Lincoln has determ- 
ined his destiny. To accomplish this end — 
this justice — many a brave man will fa'l. 
They will not be forgotten, for of each it 
will be written, in the language of one of 
our fair country-women : 



ITo lored his country : when she called, went forth— 

llis strong, yonng, manfol life within his hand — 

To save her honor, or to bravely die 

Between her and Iho foe. Our l>aimered hosts 

Are still ndvancinfr; still the hmd lesimnris 

With muffled tramp, and chock of serried arms. 

On each contested field ihc dead look up 

Ry thousands — tens of thousands — lo<>l; straight up, 

Throngh trampled dust and blood-stained turf, to 

God, 
Who holds tho i^stje. ?carce one houRehold heartk 
Hut lacks some tender light from eyes to set 
]n dCTith's mute, waiting wonder. ^Ve miss ours. 
A chair slasids empty in its wonted place, 
A shadow falls across the floor, and he — 
Our soldier boy, his fatherV only son, 
Taking his rest as truest s Idiera do 
W ben work is done — lies shot to death between 
Us and the foe 

Oh Hod! by lives like thl$— 
Hy blood of hnsbands. fathers, brothers, sous, 
So freely oflered. hear us for our cause; 
Unite our Noithland in one loyal aim: 
Wherever lifted, break the brazen front, 
Of treason. Make its very name a thing 
So foni and hateful, men shall whisper it 
With bated breath, and traitors everywhere 
Be l>anned and branded. Then, and not til! thee,r 
The nation's fiag shall float without a stain ; 
Then rebels and their seifs shall live alone 
On record, telling how sublime a ti uth 
We fought for, and how grand its triun>pbt 



21 



SPEECH OF HON. G. ADAMS. 

The last speaker was the Hon. G. Adams, introduced as a KentuckiaHj 
He proceeded to address the meeting iii a clear and forcible manner: 



My Friends AND Fellow-Citizens: I do 
not propose, at this late boiir, to inflict 
upon you a lengthy speech. Moreover, this 
call upon me to addreya ybu is entirely un- 
expected. 

Why is it that the loyal people of this 
country have re-nominated Abrahiim Lin- 
coln for the Presidency of the United Stales, 
with a unanimity unparalleled on the 
American continent? It is because they 
have tried him, and know that he is honest, 
capable, and faithful. It is because they 
have tested hira, and know that he is an 
enlightened and devoted patriot, who sin- 
cerely loves his country and his Govern- 
ment — an ardent philanthrophist, who is 
the unflinching friend of humanity, and of 
civil and religious liberty. It is because 
they have confidence that he is the friend 
of universal freedom, and that, with the 
loyal people of the country, he will never 
rest satisfied until the last shackle of sla- 
very is stricken from the limbs of every 
being who bears the image of God, whether 
white or black, and until our country, uow 
"rent with civil feuds and drenched with 
fraternal blood," is, by the total extinction 
of slavery, restored to permanent peace, 
prosperity, happiness, and greatness. It is 
because they have an abiding faith that he 
will never enslave and disgrace this great 
country, by submitting to a peace on any 
terms other than such as shall be dictated 
by the Government, terms which shall in- 
clude the absolute, unconditional submis- 
sion of the rebels to the la'i ful authority of 
the Government; terms which vindicate 
the supremacy of the Constitution and the 
laws of the United States over every foot of 
the national domain, from the Passama- 
quaddy to the Rio Grande ; terms that shall 
place the leading traitors of the South, with 
their aiders and abetters in Kentucky and 
the free States, in a condition that they 
must either quit the country, or leave the 
world ; for it matters but little whether they 
take up their abode in some remote corner 
of the earth, there to suffer the pangs of a 
guilty conscience, or go directly to the 
kingdom prepared for them, there to be 
governed by the devil and his angels. In 
short, the loyal people of the country feel 



that they can trust Abraham Lincoln to 
carry out the principles of the Baltimore 
platform, they have confidence that lie 
will take the slaves of the wealthy traitors 
of Kentucky and place them in the army, 
to do battle for the Union ; thereby reliev- 
ing and assisting the poor, loyal, patriotic 
sons of that State in their determined strug- 
gle to save the Government, and preserve 
the integrity of this great country; that he 
will faithfully and zealously make eflSca- 
cious the resolution in the platform in re- 
gard to Federal affairs, as well in Kentucky 
and elsewhere as at the National Capital. 
And I tell you, my fellow-citizens, he will 
do these things, I te'l you, too, that Ken- 
tucky will ratify the nominations of the 
Baltimore Convention, in November next, 
by an overwhelming majority. That noble 
old Commonwealth, in whose soil repose 
the bones of her illustrious Clay, will no 
longer be disgraced and cursed with neu- 
trality — milk and water politicians, who, 
whilst they profess to be for their Govern- 
ment, and are enjoying its protection and 
its blessings, are, at the same time, quietly 
doing every thing in their power to aid the 
more meanly, treasonable enemies of the 
country to destroy the Union. 

Fellow-citizens, I speak particularly of 
Kentucky, because I am a Kentuckian. I 
speak warmly, because I feel warmly, oa 
this subject. 

But the loyal people feel that they can- 
not only trust Abraham Lincoln as their 
great civil captain, but. also, as command- 
er-in-chief of the army and navy. And 
thus, with such Marshals in the'field as 
Grant, and Meade, and Hancock, and Burn- 
side, and Butler, and Sherman, and Thomas, 
and McPherson, and a long I'st of others 
like thtm, with the brave and patriotic sol- 
diers under their command ; and with such 
admirals upon the waters as Fiirragut and 
Porter and a host of others, with the brave 
and gallant seamen under them, speedy 
success is certain, both by land and by sea. 
The stars and stripes are bound to float 
triumphantly "over the sea and over the 
land, and in every wind under the whole 
heavens." 

Any why, fellovr-citizens, hare the loyal 



££ 



people of this country nominated Andrew 
Johnson, of Tennessee, for the seco id oflBce 
in their gift, with a unanimity nea ly equal 
to that with which they have re-ni .iiinated 
the distinguished incumbent of he first 
office? It is because liis untiring and un- 
swerving devotion to liis country li: i proven 
him worthy to be trusted ; and be .luse he, 
with his Kast Tennessee brethren, 'as gone 
through a fearful, fiery ordeal, .nd has 
come out of the furnace purer and orighter 
metal. It is because that, notwithstanding 
he is a citizen of a slaveholding ai d rebel- 
lious State, the loyal people ha' e confi- 
dence, from his noble conduct t nee the 
commencement of the rebellion, he will 
stand by and support them and t'. e l*resi- 
dent in their determination that treason, 
slaver}', and copperheadism shall be over- 
thrown, and damned to eterual infamy. 



In a word, all have nnlimited confidence in 
the ability and integrity of Andrew John- 
son, and that he will support and sustain 
the glorious principles enunciated in the 
platform. 

And now, fellow-citizens, in conclusion, 
we have only to sustain the Government in 
its noble efforts to suppress the rf^bellion ; 
to maintain the enlightened financial policy 
so happily inaugurated, and so successfully 
carried out by the far-seeing and lofty- 
minded statesman at the head of our finan- 
cial affairs; to do our whole duty in the 
coming contest; and with Lincoln and 
Johnson as our standard bearers, victory 
will perch upon our banners at the ballot- 
box and in the field, and with victory will 
come peace, prosperity, happiness, gran- 
geur, glory, and renown. 



CORRESI>OISrX>EISrOE. 



The Committee "on Speakers" addressed the following letter to a num- 
ber of distinguished statesmen in various: sect; ms of the country : 

Among those who responded to the invitation wer^ , Hon. J. G. Blaine, of Maine, Hon, 
Thos. H. Hicks, and Hon. Thos.Swann, of Marjdand. A telegraphic answer was received 
from Wm. H. Smith, of Ohio, Private Secretary of G v. lirough. 



Washington, D. C., 

June 11, 1864. 

Sir : We have the honor, in behalf of 
the Union organization which we represent, 
to invite you to be present at a meeting of 
loyal citizens to be held in this city, on 
Wednesday evening, the 15th instant, for 
the ratification of the nominations of Abra- 
ham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson for the 
Presidency and Vice Presidency of the 
United States for four years from the 4th of 
March next, and to request that you will 
address the people who may be convened 
on that occasion. 

Very respectfully, yours, 

JOSEPH H. BARRETT, 

GREEN ADAMS, ]■ Committee. 

WILLIAM A. COOK, 



I more th n I do, and no one is more anxious 

for thei election than am I. 
j Acce] t. my thanks for compliment paid 

and bel ;ve me to be, 
I I ost respectfully, yours, 

I THOMAS H. HICKS. 

! Joseph I. Barrett, "| 

Green .vdams, 1- Committee. 

Wxllia;; A. Cook, J 



Washington, D. 
June 13, 



C, 

1864. 



Gentlemen: The condition of my throat 
is such that I am not allowed to speak in 
the open air; otherwise I should be most 
happy to take part iu the meeting to ratify 
the nominations recentlj' made at Baltimore 
— nominations which will inevitably secure 
the support of a large majority of the loyal 
voters in this country. 

Thanking you for the invitation, I remain, 
Your obedient servant, 

J. G. BLAINE. 
Hon. Green Adams, and others. 



Senate Chamber, 

June 17, 1864. 

Gentlsmen : Your favor of the 11th in- 
stant, inviting me to be present " at a meet- 
ing of loyal citizens to be held in this city 
on Wednesday, the 15th instant, for the rati- 
fication of the nominations of Abraham 
Lincoln and Andrew Johnson," has just 
reached me, being returned from Cambridge, 
my Post Office at home, where it had been 
sent, not knowing that I had left that place. 

Unable to attend the meeting as indicated, 
by means of affliction, had the notice been 
received, I must be allowed to say that none 
united in heart and feeling in ratifying the 
nomination of Messrs. Lincoln and Johnson 



Baltimore, June 13, 1864. 

Gent'.emen: I have received your letter 
of the 1 th instant, inviting me to be present 
and adt -ess the people at a meeting of loyal 
citizens to be assembled in Washington on 
Wednef lay next, for the ratification of the 
nomina.ons of Abraham Lincoln and An- 
drew J( 'inson for the Presidency and Vice 
Preside icy of the United States. 

I regvet extremely that imperative en- 
gageme ts at the North will prevent me 
from be ag present on the occasion. 

Be p -ased to accept my cordial good 
wishes 1 )r the success of your meeting, and, 
at the s me time, permit me to assure you 
of the ( onfidence 1 feel in the honesty, pa- 
triotisn: and uncompromising devotion of 
the dist iguished nominees of the National 
Union < onvention, and my determination 
to give hem a cordial support. 

With jreat respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

THOMAS SWANN. 
To Mes, -s. 
J. W. B vrrett, 
G. Ada rs, Y Committee. 

W. A. Cooi 



"I 



Columbus, June 14, 1854. 

To Hon Jos. H. Barrett, Commissiener of 

Fenemis : 

Sir : ^'our invitation to Governor Brough 
to be present at the ratification meeting 
finds hi)n absent from the State. Rest as- 
sured, ''owever, of his sympathy with its 
object, i ad of his hearty cooperation in the 
labor ot he coming campaign. In the elec- 
tion of jincoln and Johnson lies the safety 
of the <:ountry and the completion of the 
good work already begun. 

WM. H. SMITH, 

Private Secretary. 



APPENDIX. 

Resolutions of the Grand National Council of the Union League of America, 
adopted in Baltimore June 6, 1864. 



1st. Resolved, That we will support the 
Adtainistration in the vigorous prosecution 
of the war, to the complete and final sup- 
pression of the rebellion, and to this we 
pledge all our energies and efforts. 

2nd. Resolved, That slavery, being the 
cause of the rebellion and the bond of union 
among traitors, ought to be abolished with- 
out delay ; and it is the sense of this or- 
ganization that slavery, in all its forms, 
should be prohibited by an amendment to 
the P'ederal Constitution. 

3rd. Resolved, That wc hereby approve of 
the principles involved in the policy known 
as the Monroe doctrine. 

4th. Resoevcd, That the confiscation acts 
of Congress should be promptly and vigor- 
ously enforced, and that homesteads on the 
lands confiscated under it, should be granted 
to our soldiers and others who have been 



made indigent by the acts of traitors and 
rebels. 

5th. Resolved, That every person who 
bears arms in defence of the national flag 
is entitled, without distinction of color or 
nationality, to the protection of the govern- 
ment he defends to the full extent of that 
government's power. 

6th. Resolved, That we hereby tender our 
thanks to the soldiers of the army and the 
sailors of the navy. 

7th. Resolved, That it is the unqualified 
sentiment of the Union League of America 
that no man ought to be retained in or ap- 
pointed to any office, be the same high or 
low, under the National Government, who 
does not fully sympathize with, and who 
would not heartily support, by word and 
deed, the foregoing resolutions. 



Resolutions endorsing Mr. Lincoln and Johnson, passed June 8, 1864. 



Resolved, That this National Council of 
the Union League of America hereby most 
heartily approves and endorses the nomi- 
nations made by the Union National Con- 
vention at Baltimore, on the 8th of June, 
ISQi, of Abraham Lincoln for President, 
and of Andrew Johnson for Vice President 
of the United States ; and as we are bound 
by our obligation to do all in our power to 
elect true and reliable Union men to all 
offices, and as the nominees of said Con- 



I vention ate the only candidates that can 
hope to be elected as loyal men, we regard 
it as the imperative duty of the members of 
the Union League to do all that lies in their 
power to secure their election. 

Resolved, That this Council also earnestly 
approves and endorses the Platform of 
Principles adopted by said Convention. 

Resolved, That we will as individuals and 
as members of the Union League, do all in 
our power to elect said candidates. 



■ The speech of Hon. A. W. Randall has not been furnished the Executive Com- 
mittee, and hence is not published. It was a clear and forcible vindication of the Nom- 
inees of the Baltimore Convention, and the policy of the Administration. 



17. X. of *f . 



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